The invention concerns a current meter, especially for the non-contact measuring of currents, with a magnetically conducting field receiver having a first receiving element and a second receiving element, wherein the first receiving element can move in a displacement direction relative to the second receiving element, wherein the field receiver can be moved from a closed measuring position to an open position in order to receive a cable by activating a handle.
Current meters of the kind mentioned above are known in many different designs. Generally they are configured as current measuring pliers or current pliers and have a movable and a stationary receiving element. In order to perform a measurement, the field receiver has to be opened outwardly in the radial direction by spreading apart the movable receiving element so as to introduce a cable into the field receiver. A problem can arise for the user of such a current meter when the user wants to perform a measurement in a constricted space, especially where several cables are arranged alongside each other, as in a circuit cabinet for example. Generally only one measurement should be performed on a single cable. Therefore, the disadvantage exists here that the user has to grasp and/or isolate one cable, especially one of several closely disposed cables, with one hand and then guide the current meter to the cable with the other hand. Thus, the user always needs both hands to perform a measurement. This necessarily means that the user has no hand free for safety purposes, especially to activate an emergency off switch, and therefore he is possibly exposed to the danger of electrocution. This can occur especially if there are insulation defects on the cables which the user touches with his hands. Since current meters of the abovementioned kind are used among other things for fault detection, a not insignificant risk therefore exists for the user of such current meters.
A further disadvantage of already known current meters of the kind mentioned above is that it can be very difficult and arduous to perform a measurement with them under constricted conditions. Thus, for example, it may occur that a single cable at a place where a measurement should be performed cannot be separated from other cables lying next to this one cable, in particular it cannot be pulled out from them. In such a case, it may happen that no measurement can be performed with current meters of the prior art, because due to little available room, especially because of the close arrangement of several cables next to each other, for example, the movable receiving element of the current meter cannot be spread apart at the measurement site, or the current meter cannot be brought into the open position against the cable being measured, in particular therefore because the current meters of the prior art often take up more space and/or are broader in the open position of the field receiver than in the measuring position.